Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Shortbread like Ena Baxter made it

When I started blogging back in 2007 I was having a lovely time experimenting with new flavours and ideas. It was only later I realised that I had forgotten to include the basics. I just took them for granted. Perhaps that is why I have posted a recipe for dark chocolate and cranberry shorrtbread and spiced chocolate shortbread but until today I have not posted a basic shortbread recipe.

It might also be that I find regular shortbread to be quite dull. Maybe it was not always so. I blame my current disdain for shortbread on the months I spent working in a quiet office in Edinburgh. Most of my days there were spent gossiping and raiding the stocks of Walkers shortbread. However, I live with E who loves it with a passion that betrays his Scottish upbringing. Our little girl loves shortbread too.

Now bring in my sister in law HH who lives in Edinburgh and is thoughtful and generous at choosing presents. A few years back she sent me this present pack. A book of baking recipes, a woollen rose and Ena Baxter's Scottish Cookbook. I particularly loved the cookbook as it was one that belonged to E's mum. Ena Baxter is one of the famous Baxters family that make lovely soups and preserves. I was lucky enough to visit Fochabers in Scotland where their main factory is. Sadly it was too snowy to visit their Highland Village

The cookbook is full of traditional recipes. Most of the dinner recipes are meat. I have spent more time looking at the baking chapters. It is written for women who are skilled in the art of baking and don't need precision when it comes to cake tins, amounts of ingredients or baking times. I consider myself a competent cook and yet I find this sort of recipe challenging. I have tried the treacle scones once or twice and not got the (unspecified) amount of milk right.

Earlier this year I tried Ena Baxter's shortbread. The recipe didn't give a size of tin or nor the time to bake it. I had to try it twice to feel like I had it right. The first time I didn't fill the whole of the lamington tin because it seemed too thin. The shortbread was golden brown around the edges but in the middle it was too pale, dense and soft rather than sandy and crumbly.

Don't get me wrong. It was edible. Which was just as well. I had made it for a school lunch on Harmony Day. This is a day for children to wear their national dress and bring food from their family's country. Sylvia wore a tartan skirt and a t-shirt with the Scottish saltire on it. I had to pin them to fit with a safety pin or two.

It surprised me that Sylvia did not know what a safety pin was. I grew up helping changing my siblings' cloth nappies that were held together with safety pins. I guess they just don't feel safe enough for kids any more. Well I guess I did stick the safety pin into them occasionally. Oops!

Incidentally I was quite surprised at an article in The Age newspaper on racism damaging children recently which said that one-off multicultural events "can do more harm than good and reinforce rather than challenge negative attitudes and beliefs". I wonder how this plays out at Sylvia's school where there is a lot of diversity in the children's backgrounds. Today I heard about a nutrition presentation at the school where a child asked if the puppet presenter was fasting for Ramadan.

But I digress. Back to the shortbread. I tried again. This time I spread it thinner, cooked it until I knew the colour seemed more evenly golden brown. It was much better. Cooked right through. Sandy and crumble. Sylvia had been a bit wary about the first batch but gobbled up the second. And I think Ena would have been pleased that I am learning not just by cookbooks but also by learning from doing.

E's mother would also be delighted that I am using her cookbook to feed her son and granddaughter (and myself) a traditional biscuit that has been eaten for many generations in Scotland. So while plain old shortbread is not my favourite thing to eat, it is embedded in our family and can make me feel quite sentimental Which is a good reminder of why the simple foods are sometimes the most important to us.

Preheat oven to 160 C or 325 F. Line a lamington or swiss roll tray with baking paper (mine is 31 x 24cm).

Use your hands (or pastry cutters) to rub butter into flours and sugar until thoroughly incorporated. The mixture will be soft lumps. Tip the mixture into into the prepared tray and use the back of a spoon or your hands to press it down firmly, evenly and flat. It might seem thin but thin is good. Mark squares (or fingers) by running a knife through the shortbread dough. Use a fork to poke holes in each piece.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Cool in the tray and then cut into squares or fingers as marked.

Thanks Linda - I confess once I start I can get very into shortbread - especially when it is freshly made. I still find cookbooks without detailed instructions hard - but I guess this is how we can cook from so many different cultures when we have detailed instructions :-)

Thanks Nupur - I think it is significant that the other shortbread recipes I have posted are chocolate versions - I go by the maxim that everything tastes better with chocolate - perhaps I need to try chocolate dipped shortbread :-)

I can't stop at one piece or three, I used to finish a whole packet in a day. I loooove shortbread but haven't tried a vegan version yet. I bought some food grade lavender and have to try lavender shortbread. I'm envious you have relatives overseas who can send such fab, thoughtful gifts :)

Thanks Veganopoulous - lavender shortbread sounds great - I have a recipe for lavender biscuits that looks like shortbread with lavender an have it bookmarked. And yes we do get some lovely gifts from overseas -feels like some sort of compensation for not seeing o/s family so often :-)

Shortbread, for me, will always have Australian associations even though I know it is Scottish really. My Australian grandmother produced mounds of the stuff, and we always received a huge tin at Christmas and smaller supplies across the year. As only my Dad and brother really like it, they had intermittent supply-driven biscuit binges!

I love the digressions in this recipe, so much food for thought (and PJ Harvey 'White Chalk', I haven't listened to that for years but I LOVED it when it came out!). My mother in law makes phenomenal shortbread and try as I might, I can't make it like she can. I think it's one of those instinctive things, especially as it looks so simple on the face of it. I've seen an amazing shortbread recipe on eatetc recently that has nearly tempted me to give it another go, but I have been having so many kitchen disasters lately that I've lost my confidence a bit. Sigh. Anyway, hope all is well! x

Thanks Lucy - ha ha - I enjoy my digressions too but really should't be encouraged :-) I think shortbread must be instinctive - can't remember making it with my mum though I would not be surprised if I did - but at least I grew up doing lots of baking that involved rubbing butter into flour which I guess helps. Though honestly I think my shortbread is yummy but not amazing - it has surprised me just how hard it is to get it right! Sorry to hear about your kitchen disasters - glad the cocktails are working out - sounds like you might need them :-)

Thanks Kate - my suspicion is that it would work with nuttalex - I usually use nuttalex in a lot of my baking but thought I should try shortbread with real butter - might be slightly different texture and a bit less flavour - let me know if you try it

Thanks Pene - never heard of Estonian kama but sounds interesting. And yes I try not to let these spam comments linger on my blog too long but when I am away overnight sometimes it is hard to keep up with spammers - those comments are gone now I am home!!!!

Simple recipes are the best - including basics, I love shortbread when its buttery and soft with a glass of yummy dairy-free milk. I used to eat loads of them when I was young, but they also have a very good packaged shortbread in the U.S., but they were quite pricey and heavy though!

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.